


1:09 AM

by OddlEnough



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Aloha got in a fight, Army has anxiety, Gen, Hatchi's a bitch, Not really a ship story, and in like 3 hours total, could be taken platonically, its very sad, oh no, ok actually its an alright short for being written off a whim, or shippy either one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:34:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27096622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OddlEnough/pseuds/OddlEnough
Summary: --The front door opened slowly. A familiar silhouette appeared in the frame.----“Aloha?”                                                                                              ----Aloha smiled. “Hatchi’s a bitch.”                                                            --_________________________________________Army can't sleep, and it's late. He has a feeling Aloha isn't where he's supposed to be and goes looking for him.This is a really bad description, but I swear the story is better than this.
Relationships: Aloha/Army (Splatoon)
Kudos: 17





	1:09 AM

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't the best, but it was something I wanted to write, so I wrote it. Took me about 3 hours. Yea.  
> Have fun with it :P

1:09 in the morning. Still awake.

Army’s eyes drifted from the clock on the bedside table to the ceiling. _Why am I still awake…_ He ran his fingers through his tentacles as he flipped over onto his back. The bed creaked and the blankets drifted, but he was too busy with all of the thoughts keeping him from sleeping.

The creaking of the door from the wind. The open window letting an icy chill into the room. The way his muscles ached from the physical training he did before going to bed. The reoccurring nightmares that plagued him every night.

The reoccurring nightmares. He couldn't even remember half of what they were about, but some imagery stuck with him. Like the shadow-demon chasing him. Or the hydraulic press lowering on top of him. Or the time he was slowly, painfully disintegrating in a tank of water while all of his friends, family, even strangers watched.

Aloha, Skull, Mask. They just watched. Expressionless. Emotionless. In front of the crowd. Watching. Staring. Uncaring.

Or the opposite nightmare. He stood outside that same tank. This time, it was their turn.

Aloha, Skull, Mask. They were in the tank, disintegrating. Bubbles flew out of their mouths as they screamed a silent, painful, disturbing scream. Skull and Mask looked to Army, pleading, crying, dying. Tears streamed down his face as he pounded weakly on the glass, wanting to let them out. The water was stained purple and cyan. Only Aloha remained. After the other two were… gone, he stopped struggling and glared at Army.

It struck his heart. It hurt him in a way that he had never hurt before. The rejection. The malice. The despair. And it was all _his fault_. The water was pink.

Pink.

 _Pink_.

 _ **Pink**_.

Those were the reasons for his inability to sleep. At least, that's what Army assumed.

The house the S4 shared wasn’t great, but with his knowledge of the space they were in, he could tell what was happening around the house to most of them. He could tell that Skull was sleeping soundly. Mask was sleeping… well, less soundly, but that's because of his… hay fever- and his mask being off while he slept. Aloha was…

Aloha was…

Aloha was not in the house. _Fuck, where is he? Maybe the kitchen, I’m sure he’s just there._

He wasn’t able to sleep anyways. He drew the blankets back and slung his legs over the side of the bed. He covered his shoulders with his coat that was hung on one of his bedposts. If he held it, it would cover his bare chest from the cold air. He didn’t feel like fumbling around with the zipper, finding Aloha was the one thing he needed to do, then he’d go to sleep.

He slowly opened his door and looked into the hall. None of the lights were on, maybe Aloha actually was in his room. Soft footsteps. Creaking floorboards. To the kitchen to check.

Kitchen, living room, entryway. All was quiet and dark. He looked all around him, but there was no sign of anyone having been there for hours.

The front door opened slowly. A familiar silhouette appeared in the frame.

“Aloha?”

Aloha smiled. “Hatchi’s a bitch.”

Before Army even had time to comprehend what he said, Aloha collapsed on the floor. Army rushed over. His body was bathed in the street light’s glow, every inch of him apparent. Army knelt down beside him. Aloha’s skin seemed to be sparkling, but upon closer inspection, Army saw little glass shards all over his forearms, even one in his cheek. _What the actual fuck happened to him?_

He carefully picked Aloha up from the ground. All of his physical training was finally paying off. Of course, Aloha was strong too, so why was he in this sort of shape?

Army set him on the couch, not wanting to aggravate his cuts. All over his body, there were little spots of pink blood oozing out of his broken skin. All over his body, there were bruises. All over his body, Army’s eyes roamed.

He walked away from Aloha’s side and walked first to the light switch, brightening the room, then to the bathroom. He flipped the light switch in there and rummaged through the drawers to find a pair of tweezers. Aloha groaned from the other room as Army took the tweezers from the drawers and closed it gently. Looking up into the mirror made him realize he forgot to put on his beret. He turned off the light and rushed back to his room, threw on his beret haphazardly, and walked back to the living room where Aloha lay. Aloha’s eyes were closed, his face contorted in pain, his mouth in a tight grimace.

“Aloha?” Army said gently.

Aloha’s eyes opened slightly. “H-hey Cap. How ya doin’..?”

Army’s eyebrows furrowed with worry. “Forget me, what the _actual_ _fuck_ happened to you?”

“I, uh… Got in a… ah–” As he tried to speak, Army started to pick out the blood-stained glass from his arm. Aloha’s arm would spaz every time the tweezers picked out a piece of the tinted glass from his bruised skin. It didn’t help that Army was shaking like a leaf, too scared that he was going to hurt Aloha worse than he already was. “…A fight with, um– Hachi. Ow–”

“W-why were you fighting Hatchi? I thought you were, like, at least okay with each other…”

“We have… ah- um, never been cool. He’s hated me since he saw me, and I’ve hated him along as he’s hated me. We, um, scheduled– a, ah, actual fight after our last, um– verbal spar, if you’d like to put it that way. We met up in some alleyway and I was even winning, but, uh– he shoved me onto the ground and I landed on some shattered glass, hence the glass bits in my arm… um, then Hatchi kicked my side so I’d flip over, giving me at least a bruised rib I’m guessing, sure feels like one–” He took a second to pause while Army removed an exceptionally tiny piece from his elbow. Aloha tried to sit up, once Army realized what he was doing, he helped him up, and Aloha sank into the back of the couch, hissing from the pain it took to move. Army took a seat next to him and started on the other arm after picking out the one on his cheek.

“So, anyway, he flipped me over and dug his boot into my cheek, probs why the glass is in my cheek and why the other one is swelling a bit, uh – ouch, that one hurt…” Army removed his hands from Aloha’s arm and turned to look at him. “– uh, he somehow got a bottle of water and did this…”

Aloha turned slowly so his back was facing Army and unbuttoned his blue, flowery shirt. He slipped it off his shoulders, revealing craters carved into the boy’s back.

“He aqued my back while I was on the ground… My shirt soaked some of it up, so walking home was agonizing. My skin felt like it was melting the whole time. I haven’t gotten to see it but I'm guessing it’ll take a while to grow back?”

Everywhere the water had touched had either bubbled or disintegrated. Everywhere the water had touched there was only raw skin.

Army just sat there in shock. It was just…disturbingly cruel. His breathing shallower, his heartrate quickened, his eyes flitted distractedly across Aloha’s back.

He was starting to panic. It reminded him too much of his nightmares. Nothing made sense. It all made sense. Why didn’t anything make sense? What was he freaking out about? What’s going on? Why was his back riddled with holes?

He couldn’t think straight. images from his mind and real-life mixed, creating unreasonable assumptions and ideas that clogged up his thinking.

Aloha noticed Army’s hesitation, but when he looked back, he wasn’t prepared to see Army staring at his back wide-eyed, his bare chest heaving with every strained breath. “Whoa, whoa, what’s wrong? Hey, it’s ok, you’re ok…”

He wrapped his now glass-free arms around Army, not quite knowing why, but wanting to comfort him. He spoke as soothingly as he could, trying to get Army to calm down.

“Hey, hey, it’s ok...It’s alright, you’re ok…nothing happened, you’re fine…” Army curled up into Aloha’s chest as silent tears streamed down his face. “Shh, shh…” Aloha took off Army’s beret and nuzzled his nose onto his tentacles. “Hey, am I going to wrap myself up, or can you?”

Army nodded, releasing himself from Aloha’s grip. He stood up from the couch and walked to the closet to grab the gauze and ointment. Aloha stood up after him, walking to the kitchen to grab a moistened towelette. He wiped his arms down with the towelette. Aloha looked up at Army, who was still rummaging through the closet.

“You got a haircut,” Army’s hand self-consciously went to the top of his head to cover his tentacles.

“Y-yeah…”

“Lemme see, I bet it looks great.” Army walked back with the ointment and bandages and set the on the counter by Aloha. His tentacles were now styled as bangs, two on his forehead forming the set. He had had the bangs pulled up under his beret so no one could tell with the hat on. Aloha smiled at him, in seeming appreciation of his haircut.

Army started to smear the ointment onto Aloha’s arm. “You should show everyone. They’ll love it, I’m sure.” Army wrapped his forearms with the bandages. He looked at Aloha’s eyes. They were in pain, but emotionally at peace. _What I wouldn't give to be like that…_ Army thought. He placed a prepared band-aid onto Aloha’s cheek, over the spot the glass had cut.

“There… You should be wrapped up. I’ll have to go the store for aque treatment, but other than that…”

Aloha held his gaze. “Thanks for everything… I don’t know where I’d be right now without you.” Army smiled back at the boy. He put his shoulder underneath Aloha’s and helped him walk through the hall to his room. As Aloha was about to enter his room, he looked back. “Goodnight, Cap.”

“Goodnight… Call if you need anything.”

“Of course. I’ll see you in the morning.”

With that, Aloha’s door closed gently. Army roamed about the house, turning off all the lights he had turned on and going back to his room.

_Well, I guess I found Aloha…_


End file.
